Ambrose A Hemler

Submitted by Marrie Miller

From the hills and valleys of southern Pennsylvania which teem with a thrifty, self-reliant and resourceful population, to the prairies and ranges of eastern Wyoming, as yet almost untenanted, which promise bountiful returns for the zeal of the husbandman and ample opportunity for all, is a long step in longitude and conditions, but it is one that rewards those who make it, most repaying them for the loss .in volume of associations, number and completeness in educational and civic agencies, and security in fiscal and government surroundings, with boundless scope for skill, limitless openings for enterprise, an un-cramped field for personal dominion and unmeasured readiness and responsiveness of market for every ware they have to offer, whether it be of labor or its fruits. This step has been taken by Ambrose A Hemler of Crook county, to his advantage. He was born in Adams county, Pa., on September 16. 1852. There his parents, George and Catherine (Smith) Hemler lived and prospered, as their forefathers had done for generations; and there in 1871, after a useful life which was ended before its energy was spent, the mother was laid to rest. The father is a plasterer by trade, and although advanced in years is still pursuing his serviceable craft in the place of his nativity. Their son Ambrose was educated in the schools of his native county, and two terms in the Conowago Preparatory School in the same state. He then had to quit his studies on account of failing eyesight, and began his business career as a clerk and salesman in a store at Port Carbon in the same state. He followed his service in this capacity with two years of hard work as a fireman on the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and in 1879 started for the great West, reaching Kansas in the fall and halting there for the winter, the next spring going to Missouri where he worked on a farm for a year. The next year was passed in similar work in Illinois and the next still in Nebraska. In the spring of 1882 he came to South Dakota and during the following two years was employed on a farm near Spearfish. He then passed two more years working in a sawmill in the Black Hills and in 1886 came to Wyoming and to Crook county. His first employment here was for eighteen months in the service of a large cattle company on Powder River. He then took up the ranch on which he now lives, ten miles north of Sundance, where he has remained and built up an expanding industry in ranching and cattle raising, adding to his land as circumstances permitted or required, now having a considerable body by deed and more by lease. He is one of the commanding and representative stockmen of the section, and has influence of weight in all the affairs of the county. No enterprise of moment for the improvement of his portion of the state but feels the impulse of his quickening hand and has the benefit of his wise and active mind. As an evidence of his productive and developing tendencies, it should be stated that in 1883 he dared danger and exposure m helping to build the telephone line from Deadwood to Custer and Rapid City, S D On May 16, 1885, Mr. Hemler married with Miss Laura E White of Spearfish, S D, where the marriage took place. She was a daughter of Thomas O and Mary F (Jack) White, former residents of Missouri where she was born and where her mother died. Her father then removed to Spearfish and there passed the rest of his life. He was a veteran of the Mexican and Civil Wars and a highly esteemed citizen of two states. Mr and Mrs Hemler have six children, Francis, George, Charles, Chester. Bryan and Clara. His father was also a veteran of the Civil War, seeing active service in that contest as a member of the One Hundred and Fifty-second Pennsylvania Infantry.